Blair's (lack of) power

British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees himself, not dissimlarly to NSW Premier Bob Carr, as an environmentally caring leader. The facts, of course, bring no such confidence, but our media prefers to play along with their delusional games.

Yesterday's UK Observer revealed (and thus far, in my reading, completely ignored in Australia) attempts by the Bush administration to undermine Blair's feeble attempts at tackling climate change. The US administration is essentially denying reality when their papers have:

· Removed all reference to the fact that climate change is a 'serious threat to human health and to ecosystems';

· Deleted any suggestion that global warming has already started;

· Expunged any suggestion that human activity was to blame for climate change.

Let's take a reasoned guess at the reasons behind such irresponsibility. Officials with ties to the fossil fuel industry often control and dictate government policy.

In Australia, meanwhile, the Howard government has been ignoring many of its own recommendations, according to a strong investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald:

"A Herald investigation has found that the Federal Government has not replied on time to a single public inquiry out of the 62 it has ordered in the House of Representatives since December 1998. It has given no reply at all to almost half of them."

But the Liberal Party is a "party of ideas", says John Howard. What ideas does he have in mind? A foreign policy dictated from Washington? A Pacific proxy? A refugee policy aimed deliberately at inflicting harm on those seeking asylum?

Perhaps our Dear Leader can enlighten those of us who believe the Liberal Party isn't a party of ideas, so much as a rabble of extremists with supreme faith in the free market.